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Question of the Day: GRE Verbal
"A Short History of Recent Zoos" by Will Floyd
Throughout the twentieth century, zoos underwent large-scale transformations. Before World War I, zoos were small parts of larger municipal parks, and featured sparse cages with little room for their inhabitants. This model held sway until mid-century, with many zoos struggling to remain open during the Great Depression and World War II. The successful zoos survived through making themselves cheap family entertainment. In the 1960s, zoos began to change in drastic ways. With the growing strength of environmental and animal rights movements, the public clamored for more naturalistic and spacious environments in which the animals could live.
The most emblematic of these transformations was the development of the Los Angeles Zoo. In 1966, the cramped and antiquated zoo used grants from the city government to move to a brand-new facility. Although the zoo moved just two miles away, the new location was exponentially bigger, and it featured fresh landscapes that resembled the animals’ natural habitats, instead of dilapidated cages. As the Los Angeles Zoo developed, it was able to work on preservation and conservation efforts for endangered species. New educational programs also became key elements of the Zoo’s mission. Now the old Zoo’s cages stand as ruins and reminders of what past generations saw when they visited years ago.
It can be inferred from the passage that the Great Depression __________.
made it difficult for zoos to stay open
caused no changes to American society
made cities want to eliminate zoos
precipitated zoos' moves to larger spaces
only affected the Los Angeles Zoo
In many ways, the GRE Verbal section can be approached completely from the aspect of time management. This is, perhaps, a simplification, but the remark does have truth to it. There really are two focal skills necessary for success in these sections: a mastery of vocabulary and a keen eye for reading and interpreting passages of writing. Each of these skills will greatly help throughout the examination questions found in these sections. Whether you need top GRE tutors in New York, GRE tutors in Chicago, or top GRE tutors in Los Angeles, working with a pro may take your studies to the next level.
In the Verbal sections’ Sentence Completion and Sentence Equivalence problems, it is almost impossible to finish your work efficiently without having the requisite vocabulary skills. When answering these questions, it is necessary to discern clues throughout the sentences that can help you choose appropriate words to complete their contents. Often, the whole answer in one of these questions will be indicated by a single word or turn of phrase. Without the requisite vocabulary, it can often be impossible to discern the general meaning needed for the question’s content. Varsity Tutors offers resources like free GRE Verbal flashcards to help with your self-paced study, or you may want to consider a GRE Verbal tutor.
Of course, it is equally crucial to have vocabulary skills to apply to the word choices given in each question. There is nothing more dreadful than facing down a list of three to six words and not knowing the meanings of several of them! While it is possible to use a process of elimination to limit your potential choices, if several words remain unknown, you will likely be faced with taking a guess with little clarity regarding the meaning of your choice. Vocabulary knowledge greatly helps you avoid such situations.
Likewise, a large vocabulary will help you quickly pass through these types of questions. You will have little need to puzzle over potential choices if you actually know most of the choices. You will be able to eliminate blatantly incorrect words and quickly focus on obviously correct ones. With celerity in your execution of these problems, you will gain for yourself extra time for working on the lengthy reading passages, which can take quite a bit of time to complete.
One can also benefit from good time management skills when considering the reading passages. Like the other questions in the verbal sections, the reading passages are well keyed to certain modes of reading—both skimming as well as interpreting with quick insight. With adequate preparation, you can pass through such sections with much greater ease than is often possible without such instruction. This can help you avoid the dreadful situation of having four minutes to complete ten minutes’ worth of work.
Like all good things, these skills take time to build, of course. Plan into your preparation adequate time to learn new vocabulary and to strengthen the reading skills needed to succeed. However, take heart as well, for the GRE verbal section is not an insuperable beast that cannot be slain. Like all other rigors, it merely requires devotion and time. With these, you will be well on your way to succeeding on these sections of the exam.
If you’d like to begin preparing for your GRE right now by augmenting your vocabulary and practicing requisite reading skills, you can do so by attempting our free GRE Verbal question of the day. We feature one GRE Verbal question every day; anyone who answers gets to see the answer as well as a complete explanation of how to solve the problem correctly. Even if you miss the question, it can help you pick up new vocabulary terms and avoid common missteps as you solidify your approach to various problem types through repeated practice. In addition to the GRE Verbal Question of the Day and GRE Verbal tutoring, you may also want to consider taking some of our GRE Verbal practice tests. Try out our GRE Verbal question of the day and other free GRE study resources to add more high-quality learning tools to your preparation!
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